


Infinity's End

by Kippur



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Original Character(s), POV Original Character, it could have happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 11:28:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18690580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kippur/pseuds/Kippur
Summary: Alec collects things of power. Today he's after the Infinity Stones - after all Thanos has no need for them any more.  Spoilers for the first twenty odd minutes of Avenger's Endgame. Ish.





	Infinity's End

**Author's Note:**

> Look, the Infinity Stones were going to be destroyed anyway. Alec likes collecting shit.

It really was a nice planet, Alec decided. He could see why someone would want to retire to such a place of quiet and solitude. So bubonic… no that was the plague, bucolic, that was the word. Shoving his hands into his back pockets he wandered down a row of prickly fruit or vegetable looking things… demented eggplants with spines all over them or maybe pineapples. Carefully he nudged one with his foot and it felt rather solid. Personally, he would have gotten bored silly living the rest of his immortal life in a place like this.

He’d get bored silly trying to live here for more than a few months. Solitary contemplation wasn’t for him.

That, however, wasn’t what he was there.

He was here for something much more important and he knew he only had a small window into which to grab it.

Alec collected things. A multiversal relic thief someone called him once and he took a liking to the things. He collected things of power like people collected D&D minis. And here, on this world, were six things of immense power. Reality and time altering power.

Infinity stones.

The universe could have just pointed a bright neon sign to them they were so obviously something he wanted.

Reaching a scarecrow made of armor, he gave it a slight flick of his fingers listening to it go “tink”. A slight smile crossed his face at the noise and he thought about poaching the armor for a moment but… it was not his style and it needed to be there. Shiny but not that shiny. After flicking it again he continued on to the hut and the person he’d come to see.

Thanos after he’d snapped half of this universe away.

The giant of a man stared at him with his face blank as he approached, leaving Alec to wonder what the man thought of this person coming idly up to him. Alec didn’t look like much; several feet shorter than Thanos, more a pretty elf boy than anything else, wearing nothing beyond ordinary clothes: jeans, a white button down shirt with rolled up sleeves and a black vest.

No weapons.

No anything.

“You have come for the Stones,” Thanos said when Alec got close enough. He sat on the front porch of his little hut, looking only a little bit wary. Smart. What was scarier: a man running, screaming at you while brandishing a weapon and murder in his eyes or one that looked perfectly ordinary, just strolling as if he had nothing to fear and stars in his eyes?

“Yeah.”

“And you expect me to just give them to you?” He turned his head as Alec dropped next to him, on his right side. Thanos really did tower over him; he felt like a child sitting there. He could feel the power radiating off the stones, flicking as he sat near them. They recognized him. Or what he was.

“I’d appreciate it. It’s not like you’re going to use them again. It’d probably kill you; cripple you at best.”

“What would you do with them? Undo what I have done?”

“Fft. No. I’d keep them safe; somewhere no one can find them. It’d be better than destroying them, wouldn’t it?”

Thanos stared out at his fields, fingers on his left hand rubbing lightly together but not actually going for a snap. Alec leaned forward, arms resting on his knees to look at the gauntlet. It looked like shit and would take some work to repair it.

Finally, Thanos turned to look down at him. “Who are you… or better yet, what are you?”

“A traveler. A collector.” He paused for a moment. “An ancient eldritch entity from beyond space and time. If I wanted to, I could undo what you’ve done here without them.”

“And yet you still want them.”

“Like I said, I’m a collector. Look. If you destroy them, you’ll possibly destabilize all of reality, making all you’ve done, all you’ve lost for nothing. They need to be here. I can put them somewhere they’ll be safe and still connected to this reality keeping it together.”

Thanos looked down at him, meeting his gaze. It was less a staring contest and more an assessment. Alec met it calmly.

Standing up, Thanos walked a few feet away from Alec. Not even turning, he said, “No. I think not.” He raised his hand and snapped.

Eyes widening, Alec jerked up to his feet. "F̩̾u̪̪̞̤͉͂̊̈́̅̕c̡͌̔ͅķ̥̙̾̂͞" He growled letting out a bit of power. With a blink he slipped outside of time and slid over to the gauntlet – everything frozen around him. He could feel reality pressing down on him as the stones began to dissipate. To obey whomever held them all. A noise like fingernails wailing down a chalkboard began to wail out, backlash starting to slam into Thanos as no mortal was meant to easily use them. As he grabbed the gauntlet and, thanking every god he knew that the man hadn’t raised it high enough that he couldn’t reach, yanked the stones free right at the moment before they would have truly been gone and irrecoverable for him. Shoving them just outside of reality, time started up again.

A massive flush of energy burst from Thanos, radiating out from him, knocking Alec to the ground as it covered the planet.

Reality gave a slight gasp and then settled.

Picking himself up, Alec shook his head trying to get the ringing to stop. It wouldn’t, he knew from experience he’d have to deal with it and the oncoming headache for a few hours. “Damn it, I hate when that happens.”

Reality altering events like the stones’ destruction hurt like a bitch. They couldn’t kill him even if someone tried, but they left him feeling like he’d been slapped around like the Hulk did to Loki.

Thanos… Thanos looked much worse for wear than Alec. He rested on his knees looking at the ruined gauntlet now melded to his hand, unable to move the fingers. Damage, almost like burns, crawled up the entire left side of his neck and face.

Finally at eye level Alec asked, “Are you happy now? What you’ve done?”

“Yes,” Thanos said softly. “Now they may never be used again.”

“That’s for certain. Enjoy the rest of your retirement,” he said, stepping backwards and out of reality. If Thanos said something in return, he didn’t hear it. Well. It’d be a short retirement, but hopefully he’d enjoy it. He did mean it.

Outside of reality, which looked to him like an unending blackness filled with a forest made of untold lengths of string, each string made of smaller strings, made of smaller ones and smaller ones until they couldn’t be picked out unless he tried really hard. The stones waited for him and were still tied to the reality they’d come from.

Good.

Scooping them up he shoved them into his pocket as if they were just normal rocks and returned home. They would no longer exist in that world but at the same time still do and he had them for his collection where they’d no longer bother anyone.


End file.
